


Irma Pince and the Library of 1997

by kiwisaurus121



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Could Be Canon, F/F, Hogwarts Seventh Year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 16:04:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13884318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiwisaurus121/pseuds/kiwisaurus121
Summary: The school year of '97-'98 is not gentle upon Hogwarts. This is the story of the library.





	Irma Pince and the Library of 1997

When Madam Pince checks her catalog in the summer of 1997 she discovers a selection of her books have gone missing. This isn't unusual in a school the size of Hogwarts, students often forget to return items, or misplace them somewhere it takes the castle a few days to find and get to her. But she knows who had took these books, and after 6 years of faithful library patronage, it stings that Hermione Granger has broken its sacred tenant. The books are for all students (well, with restrictions), not just for one teenage girl.

 

She'd hoped restoring the library would help her restore her mood, after Albus’s funeral, but instead finds herself even grumpier when she returns to her quarters that night. There are many things outside her control, but the library is her domain, and the books are hers to protect.

 

Poppy notices the change in her mood, of course. “Everything alright in the library, my love?” she asks. It goes without saying that outside of the library, things are not alright.

 

Irma knows it will sound stupid, but perhaps they both need a little bit of stupid right now. She hadn’t missed the red rims around her wife’s eyes, or the way her grin was forced. There is room on the couch to spare, so she goes and curls up next to her, “The Granger girl didn't return her books. I'd expected better of her.”

 

She doesn't have to look at her face to know Poppy is rolling her eyes, “Did it occur to you, Madam Librarian, that perhaps the children need the books more than the castle does at the moment?”

 

Irma just hums, Poppy is overly fond of the children in general, but  after she spent so much of 1992 in her ward, she is especially fond of the Granger girl. She likes the trouble trio, despite their propensity for injury, because they always visit each other's bedsides. Irma feels like they would get into a lot less trouble if they stopped to properly research together, instead of forcing Hermione to do it all, while the boys are off playing quidditch, or whatever it is they do. But Poppy is particular about children having to heal alone, always claiming that despite all of her training and potions, laughter is the best medicine. Irma supposes she's the expert, and besides, she's indisputably excellent at her job, so really she wouldn't want her wife to be “a stuffy healer who always consults the books,” no matter what Poppy occasionally accuses her of.

 

But she's been quiet for too long, and Poppy has worked herself up into a preaching mood, “The castle wouldn't have let her remove them from its grounds if she didn't have good reason, and they are fighting a war after all. Their troubles aren't always the same as ours, dear, and it's not like anyone reads the books over the summer anyway. So what if you have to return a few books to their shelves in September instead of now-"

 

“23 is more than a few,” Irma protests, but she's hiding a smile to see her wife so animated again after the last few days. Death has always hit Poppy exceptionally hard, which is a part of why she always refuses St. Mungo’s attempts to recruit her away to their research division. The Hogwarts Hospital ward is Poppy’s library, her space where things are under her control. The troubles the students get into provide interesting new challenges, yes, but Poppy refuses to let them ever become deadly. Within this castle she can catch any issues before they become untreatable, instead of being presented with them when there's no time left at all.

 

Her wife has ignored her interruption, however, and would scoff at her inner musings, and instead is still lecturing her, “-a  _ few _ , and what would you rather she be doing with her summer, hmm? Wouldn't you rather she be reading to prepare things?”

 

Irma puts up a protest, as the silence seems to expect it, “They're all books she's read before.”

 

Poppy sighs, “Because you've never reread a book, dear?”

 

Irma nods to concede the point, and takes the ensuing quiet to consider the issue, “I suppose what's really troubling me…”

 

Poppy nods encouragingly, and Irma hates to bring the mood in the room back down, but she's already started the thought.

 

“It's that they're a mix of reference texts and very specific magic theory. And she's checked out most of those sections before, but then she chose these specific ones to take,” she tries not to be nosey, but someone's reading habits often reveal more than she’d prefer, and she does know her books, “if those children are facing what I fear they're facing, it's similar to the selection of books I'd suggest they'd take with them into a war. And don't look at me as if I'm only concerned with the fact the books are being taken into danger, Poppy. I'm concerned because they need to be.”

 

Poppy sighs again, her eyes suspiciously shiny, “Well, I hope your books are helpful then. And that we'll all have a little longer to prepare for what comes next. But I see your point that it is troubling that she took the books  **_now_ ** .”

 

“Perhaps she knows better than us how different Hogwarts will be at end of the break,” Irma says, because they're both thinking it. She knows better than most the power of words, as a witch as well as librarian. Words are the basis for most magic, as well as the particular magic of books. Her library is a creature of its own, after all, surrounded as it is by the castle’s near-sentience. The books Hermione took aren't the most dangerous of her collection, but that doesn’t make them less indicative of a great danger to come.

 

\---

 

Hogwarts at the end of the break is worse than anyone could have ever predicted. Severus has been her colleague for years, and while not as qualified to be the next headmaster as some of the more senior professors, she still hadn’t expected the school to turn to… this.

 

The library is empty because students are scared to leave their dormitories. The hospital wing is full, until one of the  _ Death Eaters _ , for merlin’s sake, tells Poppy she needs to stop “coddling” the children. The children who are bleeding from the wounds they are forced to inflict upon each other.

 

She barely has a moment to spare to think about the fact that Hermione Granger never came back to return her books, because the entire collection has become restless. Her library doesn’t like to be so useless. Even the restricted section, which usually prefers to be left alone, has started to growl at her when she goes to check that it’s all in order. At least one of the books had snapped at that horrible Amycus Carrow when he’d tried to take it “for a lesson,” which presented its own problems.

 

Her system was built for a Hogwarts where teachers could be trusted, and students were there to learn. She’d made some changes over the summer, the darkest of her books were shelved where no one else could find them, but that obviously wasn’t enough. She sends a note flying to Poppy that she’ll be back late, puts a sign on the door that the library will be closed for now, and rolls up her sleeves. 

 

She pulls out the catalogue. She hates to use it, it feels impersonal, but the task before her is impossible without it. She drags her wand through its pages, selecting which books are too dangerous to be left in the open, and which ones look more dangerous than they are. The students have always tended to shy away from her, and the Death Eaters who preceded her time at Hogwarts remember the librarian before her, whose policies she still follows. She does not care if the students like her, as long as they respect the space. But this year there is something more in the student’s flinches, and she will not stand for that. Once satisfied that the deadliest curses are hidden away, with another stack on her desk to put in their places, she sends the rest of the books to fly in the rafters. There will doubtless be a mess, but it was easier than trying to move the shelves with the books upon them, and then send them all to new shelves anyway.

 

She raises her wand and casts for a shelf for each class. They slide towards her, and settle into position easily, as if the castle wants to be rearranged. Usually it resists outside will, but these are unusual times.

 

She goes through her catalogue again and calls down the books she needs. For each subject, she puts the texts for the first year courses on the bottom shelf, the second year courses on the one above that, and so on, with additional readings on the top shelf. She alphabetizes each shelf as best she can, but it’s still a mess of her collection. It’s only because these books have been handled, and misplaced, so often by students that they permit her to rearrange them like this, the more unusual books would be causing a far bigger disturbance at being displaced from their usual system.

 

The restricted section had been hit hardest by her earlier sorting out, and so she takes the stack from her desk over there as she considers what to do with the other, more particular, texts. They need to remain accessible, of course. If any student has the desire to seek out knowledge, it must still be there to welcome them. Hogwarts would not stand for less. She will simply have to notice if anyone takes things from the top shelves, and make sure that there is more on those topics for them. The library would be absolutely barren, with only the texts most  _ necessary _ for each course available. 

 

She shelves the book bound in human skin (on how to practice proper hydration of your own) next to the fanged book on how to tame werewolves (practically useless), as she meditates on it. She is still arranging the updated Restricted Section to her liking (the stylized binding of these books means they can often follow through on taking their contents’ disagreements into the physical realm) when she notices that someone had slipped into her library. Her wand is already out as she whirls around, feeling more than defensive than usual about the state of disarray of her library.

 

It is only Poppy. She tucks her wand back behind her ear, and settles in a book on blood classifications (disgusting, but the Death Eaters would doubtlessly approve) before going to greet her.

 

“Well,” Poppy claps her hands, “Looks like you have quite a remodel going on!”

 

“Don’t you have a job of your own?” Irma smiles back at her.

 

“It’s 10 P.M. darling, I came to drag you to dinner. But now I’m starting to think I should’ve grabbed some pepper up potions as well,” she wanders over to the new potions shelf, “why Irma, whatever happened to sharpening the children’s research skills by making them find their own materials?”

 

She fights down a blush, “They hardly have the time to do research this year, I think, and  _ someone _ needs to look out for their education,” she doesn’t feel like pointing out that the headmaster obviously isn’t. They both already know that, and it would be foolish to speak it out loud.

 

“Quite right,” Poppy fights down a grimace, “And what are you planning with the rest of the space?”

 

Madam Pince glances back at the Restricted Section, but the books seem to be settling in alright. A glimpse at the rafters shows that most of the books have settled down up there as well, unused to flapping about. There’s clean up that must be done, and she’ll need to re-ward all of the shelves against bookworms and other creatures, as those spells are tied to location, but she can take a break. She lets herself cast off her role for now, and grabs onto Poppy’s hand, “Why don’t you help me brainstorm that over dinner?”

 

\---

 

It takes a few days for the library to get rearranged in a way that Irma is satisfied with and Poppy approves of. On the second day, Headmaster Snape had sashayed in to ask about the changes. She informed him that the books had had to be rearranged since course requirements had changed. He sneered at her before stalking out, presumably to harass a first year. She considered it a win.

 

But after the quiet weeks in the hushed castle, the library begins to fill up again. She is unsurprised to see that the first students in had been recently treated by Poppy. The older ones seem confused at first by the remodel, but she quickly swoops in to direct them to the correct section and suggest that if they have free time then they should be helping the younger students learn their material, rather than getting drool upon her books.

 

And then a bloodstained third year walked into her library. She barely refrains from snapping about getting bodily fluids on her books, held back only by Poppy’s increasing complaints about the lack of care she is allowed to give students. Instead, Madam Pince pulls him away from her books and cast a quick spell to close up his wounds. It is far from a sophisticated spell, she will have to ask Poppy for advice later. Once he isn't in danger of getting bodily fluids all over her books (it tended to affect them in… startling ways) she summons a Defense Against the Dark Arts text. They’d all been removed at the beginning of the year, upon Severus’s request after he changed the class, but the closet Hogwarts had made for her to keep them in was near, and refused to lock. Still, she instructs the student to be sure to return it to her before he leaves. She gets alerted that a student would like to check out a book, but before she can go deal with that a Ravenclaw sixth year appears to ask her about texts on Romanian spellcasting in the 12th century. She suggests instead that he help the younger student work his new reading material, glaring until he does so.

 

Poppy  _ beams  _ when Irma tells her what she had done. She then insists that Irma take a supply of potions up with her the next day, even though those  **also** mix very poorly with her more magical texts. She supposes she could clear out a supply closet for them, however, as Alecto is harassing Hospital Wing proceedings, and these things have a way of working their way through the castle into her shelves anyway. 

 

This sets a pattern for the next couple weeks, more and more students trickling in and asking her for access to Defense texts. She starts referring to them as “older references” until they pick up on the fact that, perhaps, the current administration does not approve of these books. Begrudgingly, she admits to herself that they do notice it very quickly, picking up the phrase themselves. She missed having students who missed subtext, they were much easier to mock.

 

Poppy, of course, ends up having a tea with Minerva where she brags about the library efforts, and traffic picks up once again. She has a headache for three days, from trying to keep all of the books in line and organized, as well as coordinating the students’ studying of Defense, until a Hufflepuff prefect steps up and asks her if there is a part of the library that is more secluded, so that they won’t disturb all of the other students. Madam Pince blinks away the exhaustion before leading her back through the stacks, pointing towards landmarks so that the student can find her way back. They reach the back of the library, lit only by sconces, with books in boxes instead of upon shelves. With a flick of her wand she casts extra protection spells, before informing the Hufflepuff that no one but her ever comes back here, and that nothing would go terribly awry if some boxes were to be rearranged to make more space.

 

She’s late again that night, checking that none of the more volatile items remain back there, but eventually she’s confident that all of her books will remain safe. When Poppy comes to fetch her for dinner, she’s startled to find how large of a space is now clear, only for Poppy to insist on adding some chairs, tables, cushions, and hangings, to make it all, “ _ homely _ , dearest.”

 

After that, though, the students seem to sort themselves out. In the front of her library, students study quietly for their classes, matching the hush of the castle. She is also pleased to notice that they seem to be better at reshelving things under the new system. Some of them, however, slip back through the stacks, often in pairs. When she goes to check, she finds they have turned the back space into a semi-structured class setting, and are practicing spells to help younger students learn to block curses and heal themselves. She pulls the Hufflepuff prefect aside to give her a list of spells that should not be used in the library under any circumstances and firm instructions that all wounds are to be healed before approaching any books, and updates the wards.

 

At night, she now has to kick out students other than Ravenclaws who’d lost track of time. These day there are first and second years hiding in parts of the stacks she’d thought only she could find. Luckily, some of the students who had hung around the Potter boy approach these students, and apparently offer a solution other than sleeping in her library.

 

It could not be said to be a good year, but she and her library emerge largely intact, despite the battle. When summer comes, she will have to remodel again, but she has gotten some new ideas about how to arrange the texts, and been owling with the Ministry librarian about standardizing the process. She hopes her library will never again have to serve as a space for either sleeping or spell practice, but both she and her books have surprised her with their ability to adapt. Besides, now she can get her books back from the Granger girl, and her collection will be complete once again.

**Author's Note:**

> This is actually just a small piece of the very long "But what happened /after/ the battle?" universe which exists in my brain. Or rather, this is one of the background pieces I needed to establish in order to (???? Potentially) write that (in some form other than the 4 page google doc which is just a rambling mess of an outline). Also, I wanted to think more about Madam Pince.
> 
> I did read over this once before posting, but that was entirely dedicated to trying to make the tense consistent. If I missed anything there, or have other mistakes you notice, please let me know!


End file.
